Hello!

My 16 month old refuses to eat majority of food that I make for him and I am running out of ideas. Send Help!


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  • Kids won’t starve themselves. Keep offering what youcd been offering, he’ll eventually eat


  • Keep offering a balanced finger foods. If they still refuse, you could see a paediatric OT or dietitan


  • Children are a lot more switch on than we realise. By offering alternative foods when they refuse what is originally offered they learn very quickly that if they keep refusing they will end up with something sweet or their favorite foods. It may seem a little old school but if they are hungry they will eat. With my own children if they refused to eat, I would put it away and offer it again in half hour or so & they would eventually eat it. I also wouldn’t offer anything sweet until they had eaten their main meal.


  • if you have the time, it is great to have a variety of colours and textures of healthy options that your child can explore, manipulate and then hopefully taste and eat. Learning different foods through play is a great way for them to try and become familiar with different foods.


  • Lately all my daughter will eat is fruit, chicken and butter beans. She’s not interested in the foods she usually loves to eat.
    I spoke with the MCH nurse yesterday and she said to continue trying to give her what I had planned and to talk to her about it. Then if that doesn’t work then I can give her the chicken, beans and strawberries.
    My daughter also loves Anabel Karmel meals. We haven’t had them in a while but I think I will need to buy some more.


  • My toddler has just started to become fussy with food. For lunch one of the few things he will eat is savoury French Toast and if I get desperate with dinner meals he will usually eat the Anabel Karmel frozen meals! Worst case scenario if he doesn’t eat the frozen meal I’ll eat it, they are actually really nice!


  • Mine loved cereal, fruit, toast and pasta


  • Get them to help prepare dinner and make it fun


  • How about grazing plate or let him what you have for dinner.


  • My daughter is the same. I find that there are some foods she will generally eat or eat more of than most foods and they are regularly given to her. I only occasionally introduce her to new foods and flavours at lunch. I try to make lunch food that I know she will eat. Dinner is whatever we are having. If it’s not something she can eat due to her allergies I give her a fish fillet from the freezer which she will generally eat, with the veggies we are having. Breakfast is always hit and miss depending on so many variables but I try to make it predictable for her. Roughly the same food each time.

    I’ve found that if I just keep offering her food when she is super picky eventually she eats something. I give her a meal and if most of its on the floor I offer her a bit more at snack times but I don’t stress. Babies won’t starve themselves. Especially if they have a formula or breast milk as well. But always keep an eye on whether they haven’t eaten in a while. And if you get concerned don’t feel silly going to gp or mch.


  • I normally find that sweet foods do the trick.


  • My kids were more picky to when they were younger. I used to make a ice cube tray up with foods they like and foods I liked them to try. It had for example boiled egg, cheese blocks, banana, grapes, avocado, kiwi, humus dip, cucumber, bread / toast strips, cut up (vegetarian) sausage, zucchini fritters etc


  • My 15 month old daughter is doing the same thing at the moment…

    She’s gone from eating all fruit and veg to only eating weet bix for dinner, it is so frustrating. She went through a stage where she would only eat pasta sauce at night so that was easy to get veg into her that way with meatballs etc but now she’s off pasta too.. she likes to eat during the day so I fill her up while I can.

    I have also noticed if I try to give her food for lunch she doesn’t like the look of out of her bowl and with her spoon she won’t touch it but put it in one of our bowls and use a fork and pretend it’s mine, she will eat the whole lot.

    Good luck mama


  • My daughter went though the longest phase of being picky. It will pass, keep just offering and have him help out preparing meals. By offering alternatives you only allow him to think there’s always other options for refusing! When I realised I was doing this and changed, she now eats anything I give her


  • Try the distracting technique as much as possible. I do that with my kids and before they know it they have eaten everything in their plate. Even sometimes if that means that u-tube needs to be on or you need a book, or some other activity that distracts them. Once they are used to various foods then you should be able to do away with the distractions. :)


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